Year 10 News - 9th June 2017

The term is coming to an end and the focus in the last two weeks has been on academic assessments and preparations for the end of term collaboration week. We also begin the process of saying goodbye to some of our students who are sadly moving on. As ever there feels like there is lots going on before we hit the summer break!

Academic subjects

With the completion of the Art exam this week the students have finished their intense period of exams. Though it may have felt demanding the process was vital in order to prepare pupils for the challenge that awaits them in less than a year! Personally I feel that the Year group met this difficult time head on and coped admirably with the pressure. The pupils have begun to get their results in their subjects and it is pleasing to see how well they have done. This highlights how hard work and suitable revision techniques can pay off. Leading the way for academic achievement is Abigail Cartwright who narrowly missed a complete set of A*’s by gaining an A in Economics. However this was only by one mark and I am sure she will go one better in the real thing next year! From a teaching point of view I am fortunate enough to teach a third of the year group in History. It is noticeable to see how much they have improved in their attitude and their writing. The recent examinations backed this up with 68% gaining A*/A grades which is fantastic for such a large class. As ever the feedback from the exams is the most useful aspect of the process and it is hoped that all pupils can listen and understand how to get any marks that they may have lost.

Once this feedback process is completed the pupils have returned to learning new things in their lessons. In some subjects this may be starting new topics of background work to help in Year 11. Other subjects are using this time to work on content and skills. This has been used to good effect in English where classes collaborated to work on poems from World War One. Miss Hughes and Mrs Whitson joined groups to allow pupils to ccreate their own poetry and performance based on Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen and Attack by Siegfried Sassoon.

International Award

Following my last newsletter we have again received the latest notifications for those that have been awarded their Bronze Award. The students below are the most recent ones who have received the good news!

Abby Cartwright

Victoria Deschamps

Sarah Li Jenkins

Till Scholten

Thomas Wallace

Katy Sapsford

Vanessa Oyuchi

Carrie Hsu

Well done to these students and I am sure that in the next few days I will receive similar notifications for the remaining students who have finished the award. Although the UK have sent off their certificates, with the end of term rapidly approaching they may arrive too late to be received this academic year. In this event of this I will present them with the award in August.

Collaborative week - Enterprise Day

As has become a NAIS Pudong tradition now, the Year 10s will showcase their entrepreneurial skills on Enterprise Day 2017 to be held on 20th June.

While the rest of the school will be involved in a Model United Nations (MUN) Day, Y10s will engage in a Refugee Challenge whose aim is to design products that will support the successful integration of refugees into Europe. Given the urgency of this issue and the chance to do good through creativity, Enterprise Day is designated as a time to team up and mobilize all young creatives in Year 10 to use their talent and skills to help solve one of the biggest challenges of today.

With the objective of “Helping cities and refugees adapt to each other through creativity”, they will work in teams of four prior to the day to formulate and refine winning ideas. In an assembly held on Monday 5th June, the concept was introduced with teams being revealed and set off to embark on initial research. The first formal team meetings will be held on Friday 9th June and each of the nine groups is then expected to create time for at least two other planning and collaboration meetings. They have to provide evidence of these meetings. Given the diverse nature of problems related to the reception and integration of refugees, we expect a wide range of exciting and innovative ideas to help solve this global issue. These could be a product, a service, a campaign, a game, name it.

On the actual day, teams are expected to present a 500-word report that demonstrates their knowledge and understanding of the challenges refugees face in their journey across borders to seek refuge. They will also produce an infographic and 5-minute pitch illustrating how their idea works, it’s benefits and the area of need it’s meant to address. A panel of judges will assess the ideas based on criteria ranging from creativity, relevance and feasibility to team management and effectiveness of their presentation. Apart from proving that they can work collaboratively, the students will acquire and improve upon their public speaking, research and time management skill.

We look forward to a richly rewarding day for all our enthusiastic budding entrepreneurs.

Collaborative Week

The final week of term will be a collaborative week for the whole school. This will enable the pupils to collaborate with each other, across year groups, and complete activities in-line with NAE's three major collaborations: Juilliard, MIT and the UN. With Year 11 and 13 not with us it will enable Year 10 to step up as leaders of their respective houses and groups. You will receive a letter outlining the week but the schedules involving Year 10 are as follows:

Monday 19th June

Years 7, 8 and 10 will take part in a STEAM-themed event where they will work in house teams of mixed year groups to design a land sail vehicle that will be judged on its design and performance throughout the day. The students will need to be wearing PE kits and house t-shirts..

Tuesday 20th June

Year 10 will take part in the Enterprise Day (see above). As they are working on business enterprises the dress code is smart business dress.

Wednesday 21st June

Year 7 to 12 Celebration Assembly. We warmly invite parents to attend this assembly in Sports Hall B on Wednesday 21st June at 8.40am. In this assembly we will look back at the year’s achievements and present selected students with awards for Progress and Attainment. Students should arrive at school in school uniform

House activities. After an early break, students will change into PE kits and will spend the rest of the day competing in an inter-house sports day. For this Year 10 will need their PE kits and house t-shirts.

Thursday 22nd June

Years 7-10 will take part in a performance day. The pupils have already selected their talent that they wish to showcase and I will be looking forward to seeing the outcome of the musical and dance events selected thus far!

Friday 23rd June

Final day of term.

I really feel that the collaborative week will be a fantastic way to end the term. From a Year leader point of view I think that it will push our students out of their comfort zone and allow them to work on skills that are vital in the IB and later in life.

Sad goodbye

Unfortunately this Friday sees the final day at NAIS for Andrew Kraus. Andrew has been at NAIS for two years arriving from Michigan. He is returning back to Michigan and below he gives us his views on his time at NAIS.

My name is Andrew. I have been in the school for 2 years and I liked staying here at NAIS Pudong. My most memorable moment is when I got good grades in my exams. I also enjoyed the funny moments at the school with this year more enjoyable than last year. The thing that I will miss at NAIS would be the international kids and the different accents that they have. I will go back to America ,where my home town is. My favourite subjects would be mandarin from Year 9 but this year it's physics. I really enjoyed this place and will miss NAIS a lot.

Student Reporters

Below are some students who are reflecting on the year at NAIS. It is great to see such a mix of highlights and to see such a mature approach to their summer holidays!

I believe my highlight of the year has been the football team because of me contributing to the team in our journey to win the treble including ACAMIS, whilst enjoying the whole season throughout the year. My favourite subject this year has been History because I have consistently gained good grades. Here I have been able to use my history knowledge from last year this year for the USA topic especially. I have found the first year of IGCSE as very challenging yet enjoyable because of it being something different and exciting. Over the summer I look forward to improving my knowledge of my subjects for next year for a better year of academic achievement.

Thomas Wallace

I won’t forget the adventurous journey that we did this year. This was my first time to travel by hiking and camping. It felt scary at times hiking and navigating, but the view and the experience was very impressive for me. In this school, my favourite subject is Physics. Although English is my second language, lots of words or the knowledge I can’t fully understand but I am still trying and it is very interesting for me. I am planning to get my three subjects in Science better over the summer. I know I have very much to improve yet I know if I keep practicing English my science will be greater than before.

Carrie Hsu

Project week have been my highlight for Year 10 since I collaborated as a group and made some new memories with my friends. I also discovered some interesting facts about my class mates which I had never knew before. Although project week was my favourite the adventurous journey was also really memorable. From my point of view Art and DT would probably be my favourite subjects, I love being creative and able to express myself in different ways. I think that IGCSE has definitely been harder than secondary school as a whole and I will have to put more effort and hard work into it. On the other hand I do enjoy the subjects which I have chosen. As the summer holiday is coming up, I will be having a break over to US and after that I will be heading to Croatia for the rest of the holiday. I will be doing some scuba diving with my friends and also some swimming all related to the sea and the beach. I am looking forward to being social and creating memorable moments with my friends.

Sarah Li Jenkins

One of the biggest highlight of the year was the adventurous journey for the IA bronze award because doing the Award is a personal challenge. It lasted for two whole days and it helped me improve my teamwork skills. This year was my first year of IGCSE and, as a whole, I think that’s it has been tough and challenging but I also learned a lot. My favourite subject this year has been history because I really enjoy learning about the past of different countries and find it very interesting. During the holidays, I will be making sure of completing revision in the subjects where I need improvement the most.